7. Then he will reply from inside, ‘Do not bother me. The door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.’
8. I tell you, even though the man inside will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of the first man’s sheer persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
9. “So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
10. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11. What father among you, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish?
12. Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13. If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
14. Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the man who had been mute began to speak, and the crowds were amazed.
15. But some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons, he casts out demons.”
16. Others, to test him, began asking for a sign from heaven.